eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t testify. They couldn’t make me.”
“You’re already made, and what a mess.”
She looked stunned. She blinked at him, tears sliding down her cheeks.
Toby laughed.
He heard the faint, sputtery hum of a distant helicopter.
“Can I go?” Fran asked.
“I said you could.”
“Okay.” She turned toward the door and started to walk.
The sound of the helicopter grew.
“Hey, Fran?”
She turned around and raised her eyebrows.
“Know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna stay right here and hump the living daylights outa Brenda and have the time of my life. And when the house burns down, I’ll be right on top of her, fucking her, and we’ll burn up together. We’ll melt together, and be like one big clump. They won’t even be able to take us apart. Cool, huh?”
Blinking her wet red eyes, she nodded slightly and said, “Yeah.”
“Get outa here.”
“You won’t…shoot me, will you? When I turn around?”
“Nah.”
“Promise?”
“You’re too fuckin’ ugly to kill.”
She turned around and resumed walking toward the door.
Toby watched her fat ass shimmy with each step.
She lowered her head and raised her shoulders as if getting ready for a bullet.
“Tub of lard,” Toby said.
He aimed at her back.
She cowered and hugged the back of her head and trotted for the door.
Toby intended to shoot her down.
But his finger stayed light on the trigger.
A moment later, she was out the doorway and out of sight.
He thought about hurrying into the hallway and popping her.
It’d be easy.
It was a long hallway and the fat slob was so out of shape it’d probably take her forever to reach the front door.
Just let her go, he thought. She’s such a fucking loser. Give her a break. What’s she gonna do, anyway? Tell on me?”
He laughed.
Then he remembered the cop he’d just killed.
And wondered if maybe the cop had a partner nearby, a partner wondering where he’d gone.
If Fran runs into him…
Toby rushed to his doorway.
Fran had already reached the foyer. She was squatting down beside the dead cop, picking up Sherry’s pistol.
“Good luck, you dumb twat,” he called out. “Didn’t you see me empty it?”
She pointed the pistol at him.
It fired!
As the blast resounded through the house, Toby felt as if his left hand had been struck by a hammer.
But I emptied the gun!
And I let her go!
You don’t shoot a guy who lets you go!
Fran let the gun fall and lurched for the front door.
Toby opened fire.
He pulled the trigger fast.
He missed and missed.
She got the door open.
But then a round caught her shoulder and spun her around, away from the door, and as she pranced backward, arms flapping for balance, Toby fired and missed again but then hit her in the middle of the chest, then missed, then hit her in the stomach and in the right breast, missed again, then put a slug through her right eye.
She slammed her back against the foyer wall, bounced off it, and fell forward.
Chapter Sixty-three
As Pete drove toward the barricade, the police officer raised a hand, signaling him to stop.
“Looks like we’ve had it,” Jeff said.
“I don’t know,” Pete mumbled.
“They probably closed off the road for the fires,” Sherry said. “Try to talk him into letting us through.”
“How do I do that?” Pete asked.
“Come on, dude,” said Jeff. “You’re supposed to be a writer, right? Make up a story.”
With the back of her bare foot, Sherry nudged the towel-wrapped revolver a bit farther under the passenger seat.
The cop came to Pete’s door, ducked and looked in the window. “I’m afraid the road’s closed,” he explained. “The area’s being evacuated.”
“But Brett’s grandma lives up there,” Pete said, and nodded toward Sherry.
The cop looked over at her. “Is that so?” he asked.
Sherry nodded. “Her house is on Sunshine Lane.”
“We’ll take care of her,” the cop said. “We’ve got people going door to door.”
“She’s bedridden,” Sherry explained. “And she’s alone. She won’t be able to get to the door. She’s also hard of hearing, so she won’t even know if someone’s ringing the bell.”
The cop frowned as if considering the situation.
“Can’t we just drive up there real fast and grab her?” Sherry asked. She sounded as if she were trying to control her growing worry. “I’ve been staying with her, but I had to go to the emergency room this morning.”
“How’d you get those injuries?”
“Just lucky. I fell down the hillside behind grandma’s house. Anyway, when I left the emergency room, I heard on the radio that the fire was moving this way so I went to get a couple of my friends. They’re